Camp Guide: Q&A with a goaltending camp

Goaltending camp, like any weeklong summer camp, is an expensive
proposition. Smart parents will want make sure their investment is
money well spent. That means asking the right questions.

Bob Janosz, owner of Janosz School of Goaltending in New York,
has heard them all over the past decade. And he encourages them,
since an informed customer is typically a happy customer, because
their young goaltender will be the beneficiary.

What’s the ratio of goalies to
instructors?

Janosz: “I keep it to three goalies per
net. Sometimes it’s a group of two, sometimes a group of
three. Three is the best scenario at a camp, especially if
they’re there all week long. Having less than three can be a
little too much, with the intensity of the drills.”

What kind of shooters do you have?

Janosz: “To me, the shooters make the
camp. It’s not necessarily having a stud shooter. It has to
be a shooter who is willing to shoot according to the age and skill
of the goalie, and is capable of shooting that way. I like to have
the shooters a year or two older than the goalie. Then they can
always tone it down a little bit. But having the right type of
shooter — someone who’s not just there to score, but
they’re actually there to enjoy it and help the goalies
— that’s huge. You can have the best drills in the
world, but if the shooters are missing passes or not doing the
right thing, it’s pointless.”

What’s being taught?

Janosz: “You want to know what style, and
how current is the style. What are they working on at the camp. For
us, during a typical weeklong camp, the morning consists of
footwork, crease movement, goalie-specific movement and save
skills. Fundamental saves. We do a lot of that stuff in the
morning, with just our coaches. Then the afternoon, we bring more
shooters out, and it’s more about game situations.”

Do you have video and classroom sessions?

Janosz: “Most camps have these, but some
use them as more of a break. Instead of really hammering home some
good points, using NHL video, I’ve seen other camps where
they just pop a video in, or play trivia. The classroom session is
as important as the ice. We put a lot of time into our video prep
work. I have NHL goalies broken down, showing how the top guys do
it, based on situations, and those are really good learning points
for the kids.”

Are those off-ice sessions interactive?

Janosz: “That’s really important.
The classroom sessions are where you can really teach. Those
once-a-week clinics, where you’re getting a lot of reps, you
don’t want to waste ice time about where the goalie should
stand on a 3-on-2. In the classroom sessions, that’s where
you can cover those things.”

Do you video the goalies?

Janosz: “Filming them, that’s
nothing new. But knowing the right things to show them, and
teaching them in a positive way, that’s important. They can
learn a lot that way. And it might be the only time they get all
year to see themselves up close on video.”

What else will you do off-ice, such as strength
training?

Janosz: “We use that as the instructional
part of camp. Some parents think that if their kid is absolutely
exhausted at the end of the day, it’s a great camp. But
we’re already on the ice for three or four hours a day, and
you want them to be able to go all week. In my mind, the ice time
is still the most important, so we don’t try to wear out the
kids. We use the off-ice stuff as a teaching session. We’ll
bring in other coaches, and do things like pilates, flexibility and
core strength. Basically, we teach a lot of goalie-specific
strength and flexibility exercises. We’ll incorporate some
hand-eye coordination and different drills. So they leave knowing
what they should be doing, like knowing how to do a proper dynamic
warmup before a practice.”

Tell us about your coaching staff.

Janosz: “I’ve been doing the camps
for 10 years, and now every one we hire has been through the camp.
I’ve brought in the big-name goalies, or the D-1 goalies, and
what I realize is that just because you were a good goalie
doesn’t mean you’ll be a good coach. You need a good
goalie who can demonstrate. We make sure that we’re all on
the same page, so the kids are hearing the same message, no matter
what coach is there. We get people who are very passionate about
coaching and teaching and goaltending, guys who want to be there.
Some parents are impressed by the NHL name player, and I understand
that. But we have a great attitude. We work the kids hard, and we
have a lot of fun. Our staff is very serious about having the kids
get better, but they also know how to have fun. They keep things
light, and very positive.”

This article originally appeared in the April 2012 issue of
New England Hockey Journal.